


Day 36

by Amemait



Category: X-Men Evolution
Genre: GFY, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-10
Updated: 2013-07-10
Packaged: 2017-12-18 07:41:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/877307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amemait/pseuds/Amemait
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The summary for this is almost as long as the ficlet itself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day 36

**Author's Note:**

> With kind permission from Catherine Haines, I present a scene from one of the now-unavailable X-men fanfics we once wrote together. But before you get your hopes too high, I should warn you: I wrote this one today, and all on my own. It's part of the ending to Katarina's arc, as she heads off into the future of an alternate universe because otherwise she'll end up killing everybody she loves in her own. ...This made more sense when I wrote it out the first time.
> 
> Angela Bischton is Catherine's, Katarina Bischton is mine, and Hackett would like to think of himself as Katarina's. It's been enough years that I've forgotten Angela's codename, though her powers were to make people think they were seeing their worst fears - think Scarecrow without the gas - and slight telekinesis and telepathy, which is granted a boost when those around her feel fear; Katarina's is Catalyst, for she can enhance the powers of others so long as their is bodily contact, and exhibits independent control over those powers, along with a tiny control of telepathy, and not much else - though when angry she's demonstrated the ability to lessen the powers of those she's touching, and she and Rogue almost cancel each other out; Hackett is not his real name, he just answers to it because he's an adrenaline junkie, and he can manipulate Time around him. When Angela and Katarina combine their powers, the illusions become manifest-visible to other people, with the unforseen side effect of draining Katarina's ability to feel emotions, starting with fear and moving onto everything else.
> 
> Katarina is not a true mutant; her genetics were normal human, until her father loaned her out to her 'Uncle Eric!' for a week when she was two. No, don't throw things at me here; courtesy uncle, certainly not a blood-relative.
> 
> Good grief, the notes for this are about as long as the story-bit!

Angela looked at her cousin's smiling face. Well. No. Not quite smiling. There was still something off about the expression, something that wasn't quite right.

"I suppose you've guessed, by now. You always did know me far too well. Cousin." The smile was still in place, still off, and Angela paused the video, pondering what was wrong about it.

And then it hit her.

It was forced. She'd never actually thought about her cousin's expressions before; they'd all seemed perfectly natural, but that had really been the low-level psychic field that the Bischtons tended towards emanating. Nobody would have noticed, because she wouldn't have let them notice.

Like a fairy's glamour.

Angela clicked play again, and watched as her cousin opened her eyes and the smile drained away.

"You were also always far too smart. It's perhaps for the best that I leave, really. An experiment in the genetic mutation of human beings-" her hands spread apart, as if to try to encompass the name she'd just given herself. "-is not a true mutant. Not even a metahuman in the sense that Deadpool or Captain America might be, because they at least had a choice.

"Do not search for me, cousin. I should not be found. Our link, you may have noticed, is severed. Though I do not expect to regain the emotional capacity that I've lost. You show us our fears, cousin. You show us our fears and you force us to bear witness to them. I tried, you know. Why do you think I spent so much time diving from buildings, using the Danger Room, trying to get myself into trouble? It wasn't about the adrenaline, it never was, though I called myself a junkie. It was about trying to feel something - feel anything! I've been wasting away here, and nobody's even noticed. Though I suppose that might simply be my own damn fault. Too good at hiding what I really am, all my life."

Katarina's face became blank, the hand gestures ceased. The look in her eyes that had always sparkled and suggested mischief was gone, and her voice...

Her voice was flat. Monotone, as though she'd stopped caring.

Because she had.

"Pretend I'm looking hesitant as I say this, cousin. Pretend I'm looking scared, or nervous, or teary-eyed. Pretend pretend pretend. I can't even love, cousin, though I did try. For Hackett, I tried, for my brother I tried, for my mother I tried. For you, I tried. I felt nothing. I feel nothing. It should hurt, perhaps? A physical ache in place of the emotions?"

Angela could feel the pinpricks of tears, felt responsibility pricking at her conscience.

"Shed no tears," said the blunt voice from the computer speakers. "You probably didn't cause this. You were merely," a short bark of laughter, like somebody who had never heard the sound were trying to emulate an onomatopoeia "the catalyst.

"Seek me not, cousin. What would be the point?"

The screen went dark.

And into that darkness, Angela wept.


End file.
